So named for its ability to make rafts disappear, Magic Hole is the Kennebec River’s biggest challenge. Dedicated to those with a "GO FOR IT" attitude, this bold, unrepentant ale is liberally hopped with premier East Kent Goldings.

Reviews by sprucetip:

Faint and without much legs. Grainy mainly, with some very subdued hop character.

Grainy and bitter flavors battle, with some sweetness, though hard to find, at the start and finish. Hop bitterness largely without the flavor, but some citrus notes poking in toward the finish.

Too much tingling fizz lingers too long, then fades into a dry, bitter finish that is partially clean, but some bitterness lingers. Body is on the thin side of medium.

Overall, not anything to write home about. But surely the river runners at the Forks have no problem sessioning this one. And the fact that it comes from a brewery in the middle of Boondocks, Maine is something for which to be grateful.

More User Reviews:

A bottle poured into a pint glass. The beer was a hazy amber color with a small tan head. There was a bit of lace.Mostly floral aroma, but also citrus. Sweet malt too.The taste was a little underwhelming, and did not deliver what the aroma suggested. More grapefruit than anything else, some piney hops, a bit of sweet malt. But I'd say it smelled better than it tasted.Fairly balanced mouthfeel.OK beer.

Apricot-honey color with a lumpy beige head, that deposits oily spotty lacing down the sides of the glass. Aroma of sweet malt and citrusy hops. Tingly and somewhat tannic mouthfeel leads to flavors of sweet malt and corn, but where's the hops? I honestly detect no hops, and this is the second bottle I tried so that I could be sure. Tastes nothing like an IPA should taste, and no other characteristic can make it enjoyable for me.

Bottle via trade thanks to ben4321 on ratebeer. Ben has been a friend of mine since middle school and he is just about as ridiculously into beer as I am these days. Magic Hole, hmm... Ok, nickd717, get your mind out of the gutter (yes I do refer to myself by my BA name).

T - Caramel malt, earth, apples, oranges, citrus hops, and even a little alcohol, which I normally don't pick up much of in single IPAs. Hop character is more like an English IPA, where it's more about bitterness than aroma and flavor. Maybe they should add the hops later in the boil. Still, the finish is surprisingly hoppy and fairly long.

M - Body is medium and so is carbonation level.

D - Pretty good. This was definitely a different beer than I'm used to - not bad, but just doesn't really stand up well next to a lot of more in-your-face American IPAs.

12oz. bottleA) Pours with a two finger head. Slowly settles to a creamy lacing around the edge of the glass. Overall lacing is thin and sticky. The body is hazy. Visible sediment. Bronze in color.S) Floral notes with grapefruit. Caramel malt sweetness.T) Mellow caramel malt upfront but not enough to balance the hop bite. The bite is fairly prominent and very ESB-esque. The hops linger long in the after taste.M) Fizzy. Dry. Bitter. Medium bodied. Light sediment feel.D) An alright IPA but not a standout.

Poured into an imperial pint glass, formed a 3/4" beige head over the totally cloudy orangey amber brew. Pillowy head lasts very nicely, with heavy sticky lacing. Aroma is lightly citrus, but minimal. Taste starts sweet, hits a shot of tangy citrus in the middle, and closes with ample bitterness. Mouthfeel is reasonably smooth, and drinkability is alright. Not a bad beer, but was expecting more.

poured into pint glass from standard 12 oz. bottle.
murky reddish amber hue, quarter of an inch off-white head. decent lacing
slight but sweet nose - toffee, pine, some mustiness.
this is a mellow and straightforward i.p.a. in terms of taste, too, but not boring. i really dig it. hops lurk in primary sweetness, raw hop character comes forward with some pine and floral sharpness. tasty but not too in-your-face; formidable hop finish on the back of the tongue lapses into a certain dryness.
mouthfeel is split between the prescence of (enjoyably) rough hop texture on palate and an unfortunate under-carbonation - seems a bit flat.

not a bad offering, though unabashedly linked to the commodification of rafting. nothing too wild but balanced and tasty with a long finish. if only the mouthfeel were more up to par...

They dropped the "Magic Hole" part of the IPA, but still have the goofy drunk sun on the label.

A: Pours big 2 finger frothy head into my oversized snifter. It has lots of large bubbles and fades pretty quickly. It's a super hazy dark orange reddish hue color, with lots of bubbles on the sides of the glass, and sediment galore.

N: Some crisp ale aromas give way to some slight citrus, earthy chewy hops. It has a slight earthy aroma, and some slight malts making me think this isn't as fresh as I though. A very slight grapefruit follows the background.

T: Starts with crystal malts at first, and some toasty malt almost bready flavors. Then goes into a slight chewy hop phase, with some slight citrus and earthy hop flavor. A little fruity. Some definite pale flavors, bitterness, but not so bright on the hops. This is a lot more like a pale ale than an IPA.

M: Medium body with too much carbonation.

F: Finishes slightly bitter and dries off quite a bit! Some fruity hop flavors and hints of that chewy hop flavor linger a bit. The bitterness doesn't ramp up too much, but doesn't fade either as it sticks around for minutes after the sip. It also has a slight nagging not so pleasant bitterness, like orange rind.

So many dirty jokes could be made with this beer. Oh, well. It pours a somewhat hazy auburn-amber topped by nearly a finger of light ecru foam. Streaks and waves of minor particulates permeate the liquid mass. The nose comprises light grapefruit, even lighter white grapes, and a decidedly light strain of caramel. The taste intensifies everything in equal proportions, though the grapefruit tries its vain hardest to overpower the others. The body is a light medium, with a light carbonation and a pretty smooth feel. Overall, a nice IPA, but one that is mostly just above-average.

Beer brewed out in the middle of nowhere, yet easy to find (up here at least) Pours a deep amber color. Not much smell, a bit sweet. Taste is nice malt sweetness, grassy/citrus flavor hops, not too overwhelming. Nice mouthfeel. Overall another great session beer for me. I like the cool sun logo on the bottle and thinking of getting that tattooed on my arm.

As one reviewer commented, they've dropped the Magic Hole in the name. The beer is also contracted out and brewed by Mercury Brewing in Ipswich, MA. I'm not certain if that has had anything to do with the name change, or any recipe changes either. The beer is just too fruity to be a serious IPA. The label intones that we should "grab one and hold on ... dosed with fresh hops." Sorry, but I'm not buying in. The beer looks fine, with a nice orangey amber color, a bit hazy, smallish head, not much retention, not much lace. The nose isn't particularly hoppy, but more bubble gum fruity.

There is a leafy hop texture to the beer. The consistency and mouthfeel is a touch prickly, and that's fine. The beer is just a fruity APA more than a serious IPA. There are raspberry and strawberry notes in the beer, and things get more fruity as the beer settles. The drying, slightly bittering leafy hop is tame. The beer is medium bodied, fairly substantial in density, a touch sticky, maybe just a tad bit of a perfumy quality as well. When I opened the bottle, it did have a very slight English Pale malty yeast feel, and it reminded me of other beers out of Mercury Brewing, but this experience dissipated quickly, but it is worth noting. The beer just isn't inspiring one way or another. It's not a bad beer, I'll finish my bottle, but won't be going back to the well for another.

For lack of anything exciting of the home brews at Mainely Brews in Waterville, Maine, I tried this guest IPA. Poured cold into a pint glass it looked encouraging with a hazy deep auburn color and a big healthy off-white head and good lacing. However, the first sniff gave me an uneasy feeling that this would not meet my hoppy expectations. It was a peppery wheat hint with some sort of woodsy malt perhaps. Very mild and generally discouraging. But onward with my chin up, into the valley I plunge and sure enough, the flavor doesn't do too much better. It's a near medium bodied brew with decent carbonation but here again, though I do pick up some peachy hop edges, it's mostly a maple malt idea which is vague in itself. It has enough of an edge to make it fairly drinkable, refreshing and not a drain pour at all. Still, I was disappointed enough to find the brewpub had little to offer of its own to accept that it's best guest tap was this. The hop flag flies at half-mast this night in Waterville. Hops or no hops, this was an average brew at best. Tasting like something some macro brewer would devise, passable.